Dave Dorman News: Announcing the WASTED LANDS Omnibus by Magnetic Press

Dear Friends,

First off, I need to be sure to mention that I, artists Douglas Klauba and Aaron B. Miller will all be speaking at HEVANSTON GALLERY in Evanston, IL at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22nd, EARTH DAY. Since we artists all work from home and save so much of the rest of the world’s carbon footprint, I think you should join us in celebrating that on Earth Day. Charlie Athanas, the gallery’s curator, will be hosting our lecture. That address is HEVANSTON GALLERY, 529 Davis Street, Evanston, IL 60201.

Now I want to share with you info on my creator-owned series, THE WASTED LANDS, which is now a new book, the WASTED LANDS Omnibus, published by Magnetic Press and publisher Mike Kennedy. It’s a huge honor to share this with all of you, and I think Mike Kennedy has done an amazing job. If you’ve noticed me rather silent lately on social media, it’s because I’ve been working so hard to meet this deadline–I’m still working hard on it–to get every comic book page recolored and relettered. I hope you all enjoy the end result:

Announcing My 30th Anniversary Print #2: COBRA Night Viper

Dear Friends,

It’s time to announce the #2 Giclee in my year-long 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Series. This exclusive set of celebration prints commemorates my 30 years as a professional artist, showing milestones in my artistic career. For more general information on this series please see my previous blog announcing it by clicking here… I thank Hisstank.com for picking up the story as well. That was really great. G.I. Joe Fans, if you’re not on that site already, you need to know about it.

In case you didn’t read my last blog entry, this paragraph recaps the back story on my involvement with Hasbro and G.I. Joe:

Beginning in the mid 1980s, I started working for Hasbro as a freelancer for their R&D Department. I was hired to create paintings of their characters, in development for toys, to be rendered realistically as if they were real people. This assignment was perfect for me, as I love to work on figures and challenge myself to translate the toy designs as they might look if you saw them on the battlefield. These works were to be used as presentation pieces to the Board of Directors to help them choose which characters got produced as actual toys.

For the first wave of figures, I was told to concentrate on the character with very little background added. I did about 12 of these during that set. In the next wave, I was asked to add a proper looking background to the figures. This helped place the figure and give it more context and realism. I continued to do that for the rest of the art done for Hasbro, until the early 1990s. I produced around a hundred paintings for them and it was a very fun run.

For 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Giclee #2, I have chosen the COBRA Night Viper as my representative art for this time period in my career, because it has always been one of my favorite GI JOE paintings. This was one of the first I did featuring the full background, with the color and atmosphere of the piece really giving a great feel of stealth and character.

COBRA Night Viper by Dave Dorman

Like all prints in this series, this one will be issued in extremely Limited Edition Giclee’s of 30 copies, each signed and numbered by me, Dave Dorman. Each will have a special embossing on the print in the bottom right corner and also come with a Certificate of Authenticity. The price is $30.00 including free shipping in the US, an additional $18 for shipping outside the US. Please click here to order this print….http://www.davedorman.com/30thprint.shtml

Next month’s featured print hint: “If Adventure Has a Name….”

For those of you following Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich’s situation, no matter which side of it you’re on, he’s a fellow artist and human being, and he’s hurting and needs our help. To help Gary, our friend Steve Niles created an online fund-raiser to help with geting up on his mortgage and medical bills; if you’d like to help Gary, please click here: http://www.steveniles.com/gary.html

Another fund-raiser I’m involved in is helping my Chicago comic book artist friend Doug Klauba’s beautiful son Gianni, pictured here:

Gianni Klauba, Son of Comic Book Artist Doug Klauba

Gianni is a special needs child who needs costly therapy and an iPad to help with that therapy, so please click on http://giannispad.com if you can help him. I contributed an Artist Proof of my Darth Vader’s Persuasion of the Outer Rim to help with that, and I know our friend Alex Ross has contributed this original Batman piece as well, so please bid on all of the art to help our Gianni!

Bid on Alex Ross' Batman Art for Gianni Klauba!

I will be teaching how to draw Star Wars art in an afternoon workshop with Doug Klauba on February 25th at the Southwest Elementary School in Evergreen Park to raise funds for their PTA. For those of you who watch Big Bang Theory, let me know if you’ve spotted Doug’s artwork on the set yet?

In other teaching news, I will be presenting at the prestigious American Academy of Art (Alum include Douglas Klauba, Jill Thompson, Alex Ross) in Chicago on Wednesday, February 22, 2012. I was told by an organizer that the students have been stealing the posters off the walls that announce my lecture and include a low rez image of Lord Vader’s Persuasion of the Outer Rim, so I hope people actually find out about it and show up to see me.

I also want to let you know that I will be donating an original oil Star Wars painting to non-profit indie school Elgin Academy, and online bidding will start on March 1st. I am told  one of their auction items is 2 tickets to San Diego Comic-Con, which are impossible to get and were sold out during last year’s show already. If you’re in need of two five-day San Diego Comic-Con passes, you’ll want to keep an eye on this page. Those passes include a dinner with me in San Diego, if you don’t mind dining with a dedicated carnivore.

I thank you for poring over this rather lengthy message, but I had much to announce today. My next blog will be my interview with my friend Mark Nagata, who owns MaxToyCo.com, a wonderfully exclusive Japanese Monster Toys company.

Have a great rest of the day,

Dave.

DAVE DORMAN STAR WARS CRIMSON EMPIRE PRELIMS FOR SALE: OWN A PIECE OF POP CULTURE HISTORY

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all who attended the HorrorSociety.com-sponsored horror art show MALEFICIUM last night at Kosart Effects Studios & Gallery in Westmont, IL and hung out with my wife Denise and me. From today through mid December, you can book a viewing by appointment only, so contact J. Anthony Kosar if you want to spend quality time surrounded in rooms full of art by me, Tony Akins, Charlie Athanas Kyle Bice, Brian Busch, Melissa “MissMonster” Curphy, Samantha DeCarlo, Ray Frenden, Aron Gagliardo, Ashton Gallagher, Tom Herzberg, Doug Klauba, Kenn Kooi, J. Anthony Kosar (the Boaris Frankenswine life-sized pig he did is off the hook!) Rich Kryczka, Joseph Larkin, Joe Lester, Darick Maasen, Matthew McCarty, Menton Matthews III, Aaron Miller, Bill Reinhold, Chad Savage, Jason Seiler, Tim Shumate, Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson and Bill Ystrom. There is SO MUCH gorgeous horror art, horror action figures and sculptures, it’s almost too much to take it all in, but all of the hipsters and cool kids are seeing it, so you should, too. There are prints for sale of the art as well and we hope you take advantage of this limited time opportunity.

I wanted to mention that the auction ends today for my Star Wars Crimson Empire pencil prelim, the artwork which is now on the cover of the Dark Horse Comics issue in your local comic book store. Here’s the link to place your bid and own a piece of pop culture history: http://bit.ly/tWZvlQ 

Dave Dorman's Star Wars Crimson Empire Cover Art Prelim, Now on eBay

My CAT WOMAN erotic girl art is also still up for sale on eBay, auction ending tonight as well – to view that, see my last blog posting or click here to place your bid! http://bit.ly/w09S8L

Today I’ll be painting all day, with the occasional break to see what you’re all up to on Facebook and Twitter, finally carving our pumpkin (we’re thinking an Angry Birds face design), and then watching “WALKING DEAD” tonight on AMC. FYI, I may be switching my personal Facebook account over to a FB Fan Page, which makes no difference to those of you connected to me, but I guess I lose a few pictures or something. No biggie. I have them all saved on my computer. It’s getting to the point where the 20 new friends per day are going to exceed my 5,000 limit for friends and once that happens, I don’t want to be hanging out on two different pages. If you want to connect with me on all of my social networks, here’s my 411:

Dave Dorman on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

Dave Dorman on FaceBook: http://fb.com/davedormanartist

Dave Dorman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davedorman

As always, I thank you for reading, commenting and taking an interest in my work. It’s what keeps me going and keeps me painting.

Dave.

DAVE DORMAN CATWOMAN ART eBAY AUCTION

Dear Friends,

Here’s a piece I did the other day that is on eBay for sale right now. The auction ends soon, so be sure to bid if you’re going to! Here’s the link! http://bit.ly/w09S8L

Cat Woman by Dave Dorman